The mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, has announced a plan to cut city vehicle fleet greenhouse-gas emissions by 50% by the year 2025 through the use of electric vehicles and biodiesel.

The plans were revealed at the recent Climate Leadership Conference in Seattle, where Murray also revealed his intent to increase electric vehicle (EV) presence in the city by 15,000 vehicles by 2025 — with city fleet EV increases playing a part.

Currently Seattle gets the vast majority of its electricity from hydroelectric generation sources. As a result, if the city wants to notably cut greenhouse gas emissions, it will need to do so mostly in the transportation sector.

With an estimated 65% of Seattle’s greenhouse-gas emissions coming from transportation, Murray said, his Drive Clean Seattle will help cut carbon pollution that is contributing to climate change. His developing plan includes a range of strategies to transition transportation, both public and private, away from fossil fuels to clean, carbon-neutral electric energy.

Blessed with abundant zero-carbon hydropower from Seattle City Light, Seattle is in a position to lead the country by example, Murray said, with more electric buses, cars and light-duty trucks on the roads.

…Murray’s Green Fleet Action Plan calls for replacing about 120,000 gallons of gas burned in the city fleet with electricity.

“We have clean energy at our fingertips, and it’s time to use it to improve our transportation infrastructure,” Murray commented.

Further reductions could result from the replacement of conventional diesel with biodiesel, according to those involved. (Author’s note: I remain unconvinced that biodiesel truly possesses less of a carbon footprint, when everything is factored in, than conventional diesel. So I would tend towards supporting the shift to electric transportation instead.)

The plan also calls for the installation of 400 new EV charging stations in the city over the next 5–7 years, to make the transition to EVs easier.

“Cities are a place to incubate ideas. We can be a model,” Murray added.

About the Author

James Ayre James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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